Alys Tomlinson (born 1975) is a British photographer.[1] She has published the books Following Broadway (2013), Ex-Voto (2019), Lost Summer (2020) and Gli Isolani (The Islanders) (2022). For Ex-Voto she won the Photographer of the Year award at the 2018
Sony World Photography Awards. Portraits from Lost Summer won First prize in the 2020
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.[2]
Life and work
Tomlinson was born and grew up in
Brighton, UK.[1] She studied English literature and communications at the
University of Leeds.[3] After graduating in the mid-1990s she moved to New York City for a year where she undertook her first commission as a photographer, shooting all the pictures for the Time Out Guide to the city.[3][4] She returned to London to study photography at
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and later completed a part-time
MA in anthropology of travel, tourism and pilgrimage at
SOAS University of London.[3]
During each of several later trips to New York City over four years, she walked the 14 mile length of
Broadway, first in full taking 10 hours then in sections, and making street
portraits.[4] This resulted in the book Following Broadway (2013).
"Ex-Voto gathers her stark monochrome portraits of pilgrims, large format landscapes and mysterious still lifes of offerings left in rocks and trees at Lourdes, Ballyvourney and Grabarka. The results possess a kind of serene calmness that befits the subject matter, her portraits in particular capturing the reverent otherness and simplicity of the devotional life."[6]
Tomlinson's film Vera, which accompanies her Ex-Voto work, is a "short film about a young nun, Vera, who works with wild horses in a convent in
Belarus".[7]
Lost Summer (2020) is a book of black and white portraits of young people aged between 15 and 19 in north London. With the cancellation of final exams and ritual events such as proms and graduations due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Tomlinson photographed her subjects in the outfits they would have worn to prom, in their gardens and local parks.[8][9][10]
As well as personal projects, Tomlinson works commercially for editorial, design and advertising clients.
Publications
Books of work by Tomlinson
Following Broadway. London: self-published / Eyebox, 2013.
ISBN978-0992728007. Edition of 250 copies.[4]
The Faithful,Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France, 2019.[5] Part of the New Discovery Award. Included Tomlinson's Ex-Voto photography series and short film Vera.